BJJ: Who are you competing against?


The gym I belong to has a small swimming pool, not too dissimilar to the one in the picture above. I love swimming and luckily, it doesn't get too busy in their.

Recently, I was swimming lengths along with two others. I didn't know them so there was no real reason for us to all to be swimming in the same direction but every now and again would.


It suddenly hit me. To anyone walking into the swimming hall, it looked like the three of us were competing in a race against each other. One person was clearly winning and the others, by definition, losing. That's what it looked like to the outsider.


The funny thing is, none of us would be aware that that was how it looked.


None of us was racing against the other.


We were all enjoying the swim. Sure, I was working on my technique and I'm positive the others two were as well. We were, if at all, competing against our previous selves.



Definitely not competing against each other.



It made me think. As jiujitsu practitioners, competitors or not, we are not really competing against each other. We use each other as mediums to improve our own understanding of jiujitsu and, ultimately, ourselves, but we are not really trying to best each other.


The competition is between doing jiujitsu and not doing jiujitsu.

If you do jiujitsu, you are winning.

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ZHOO ZHITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

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